"Explain your presence at the scene."
"She was comforting me!"
"Explain the fifty million yuan you stand to inherit."
"I didn't want her money! I wanted HER!"
The prosecutor stepped back, his expression one of satisfied pity. "No further questions, Your Honor."
Shuyin was led back to the defense table, her whole body shaking. She had failed. She knew she had failed. She sounded exactly like what they wanted her to sound, desperate, unhinged, guilty.
Zhou Mei tried to salvage something in her closing argument. She emphasized the lack of direct evidence. The suspicious timing of the family's departure. The convenient appearance of the poison vial. The rushed nature of the trial itself.
"Ladies and gentlemen, this case has more holes than evidence. Yes, Miss Lin collected medication. Yes, she was present when her grandmother died. Yes, she stands to inherit money. But none of this proves murder. None of this proves intent. And the prosecution's theory requires you to believe that a young woman with no history of violence, no history of criminal behavior, suddenly decided to murder the person she loved most in the world. Does that make sense? Or does it make more sense that something else happened here? Something we haven't uncovered yet?"
But her words fell flat against the weight of the prosecution's case.
The prosecutor's closing argument was devastating in its simplicity.
"Ladies and gentlemen, this case is not complicated. Motive: fifty million yuan and a family that had betrayed her. Means: access to medication and poison. Opportunity: sole presence at the scene. Timeline: three days of systematic poisoning. Physical evidence: the poison in her possession. The defendant had every reason to commit this crime, every opportunity to commit this crime, and every means to commit this crime. She did commit this crime. And justice demands that you find her guilty of first-degree murder."
Judge Chen looked at the jury. "You may now deliberate."
The jury filed out, and Shuyin was led to a holding cell to wait. Zhou Mei sat with her, both of them silent. What was there to say?
The jury was back in less than two hours.
Two hours to decide the rest of her life.
When Shuyin was led back into the courtroom, the atmosphere had changed. The crowd was quieter, and more tense. This was the moment they'd all been waiting for.
The jury filed back in, and Shuyin searched their faces desperately for any sign, any hope, but none of them would look at her. Not a single one.
She knew what that meant. Everyone knew what that meant.
"Has the jury reached a verdict?" Judge Chen asked.
The foreman stood, a middle-aged woman in a blue cardigan who looked like someone's mother. "We have, Your Honor."
"In the matter of the People versus Lin Shuyin, on the charge of first-degree murder, how do you find?"
The courtroom held its collective breath.
The woman's voice was clear and absolutely final. "We find the defendant guilty."
The courtroom exploded.
Reporters rushed for the doors, and spectators cheered or gasped.
Someone in the back shouted "Justice!" Others joined in until it became a chant.
"Justice! Justice! Justice!"
Shuyin heard none of it. The word "guilty" echoed in her head, drowning out everything else.
Guilty.... Guilty.... Guilty. .
She had been convicted of murdering her grandmother. The one person who had truly loved her. The one person she would have died to protect.
Judge Chen banged his gavel repeatedly, calling for order. It took several minutes for the chaos to die down enough for him to speak.
"Order! I will have order in this courtroom!" His voice finally cut through the noise. When silence fell, he turned to Shuyin, his expression was hard, showing no mercy.
"Lin Shuyin, you have been found guilty of first-degree murder, one of the most heinous crimes in our legal system. You murdered your own grandmother, a woman who loved and trusted you, for financial gain. This court finds no mitigating circumstances. No remorse and no justification."
He paused, letting his words sink in.
"It is the sentence of this court that you be imprisoned for the rest of your natural life, without the possibility of parole. You will spend every remaining day you have behind bars, where you will have time to reflect on what you have done. Perhaps, in that time, you will find the conscience you so clearly lacked when you committed this terrible crime."
The gavel came down with a crack that sounded like a gunshot.
"Bailiff, remove the prisoner."
Life in prison. The words didn't seem real. Didn't seem possible.
"No!" Shuyin found her voice, standing so abruptly that her chair fell backward. "No! I didn't do this! I'm innocent! Someone has to investigate my family! Please! They killed her! They framed me! Please!"